Fat Ballerinas

ah empire biscuits…i am incapable of getting through christmas without the urge to make these yummy cookies (and the urge to eat them). normally with baking, my happiness comes from giving. but with these cookies my desire is to hide/horde them for myself. bad girl, happy girl.

Empire Biscuits

yield: Makes 18 to 20 sandwiches
Ingredients

DOUGH
2 cups of [...]

may your world be filled with warmth and good cheer this holiday season, and throughout the year! wish your Christmas be filled with peace and love.

maybe i was inspired from watching “Julie/Julia” or my inner frenchwoman was ready to come to the surface (briefly) but i decided to try baking a genoise sponge cake. i have made sponge cakes before but usually used a more british style victorian sponge, a lot more stable and forgiving. maybe i was feeling [...]

i can not believe it…i have made it two years in barcelona!

i have gotten my cooking and baking mojo on with the purchase of my very own brand new oven. i have been dreaming of this day for oh a year and a half. i even went so far as to arrange all my collected recipes (uncooked or baked until now) into a computer recipe [...]

well wouldn’t you know it, the nasty flu bug takes its grip on barcelona and i get to be one of the chosen. school started back up two weeks ago so it isn’t too hard to guess where i picked it up. and no, there is no relief in telling me the first [...]

that is right! i am back. with more posts on mundane things that you thought you would never be interested in. don’t you love me. 2009 here we go…

i am writing this in somewhat of a jet lagged haze so please excuse my wanderings. you see on monday morning we arrived back to barcelona from a two week trip to the states. a crazy brief encounter with san francisco, phoenix and new york. after spending 7 hours on a flight [...]

dear friends,
some shmuck decided to hack his way on to my weblog and put a bunch of hidden links in my postings. it really !@#$%^ me off. hopefully none of you had to witness it.
thankfully all is fixed. never underestimate the power of a pissed off woman (and of course her [...]

where have all the gentlemen gone? i was reminded of this last week during one of the more romantic days in Catalunya. last wednesday was Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Day for us anglo saxons) and it is at a glance a very sweet romantic day. women are given red roses, men are [...]

i have just witnessed the grossest, scariest, most appalling thing ever…i am not exaggerating. i rate this more gruesome than a horror film. i tried to wash the grease trap from the kitchen of our rented apartment. -shudder-
i should explain that in Spain the most common ingredient in cooking is [...]

from the blogger who brought you the fives stages of grief moving, now the untold story of one woman’s fight with the “subjunctives” and “pluperfect”. in a land of unintelligible signs, her love for a faithful dictionary and a quixotic verb table form a bond that may have to be surgically severed. she finds [...]

“let this coming year be better than all the others. vow to do some of the things you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t find the time. call up a forgotten friend. drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. vow not to make a promise you don’t think you can keep. [...]

i am dreaming of a white christmas.
i have the snow outside, the trees glistening,
and now all i need is the movie to make it complete.
that and maybe a cup of hot coco.
you may be wondering, snow in barcelona?
not exactly. we are nestled in minneapolis for 10 days. brrrr. my brother, his wife and [...]

at some point in our lives, each of us faces the loss of someone or something dear to us. the grief that follows such a loss can seem unbearable, but grief is actually a healing process. grief is the emotional suffering we feel after a loss of some kind. the death of a loved one, [...]

Rowen Ian Harris, born October 6, 2007 at 8:30am 4 pounds 14 ounces
it was not an easy start for my little bean. born four weeks early, Rowen gave his mother, Lily, and dad a little fright. it seems he had a nasty infection and it was necessary for Lily to have a [...]

at times a lot. recent days have made me ponder the question of what love is.
it can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state.
can it be expressed when writing in a language that is not your native tongue?
Tu llamas la atención de alguien
Soy yo.
Yo pierdo el corazón
Es por ti.
Nosotros [...]

haven’t you ever just wanted to….

Do a cartwheel or play leapfrog.
Sing into your hairbrush.
Walk barefoot in wet grass.
Read the funnies. Throw the rest of the paper away.
Play a game where you make up the rules as you go along.
Change into some play clothes.
Be utterly amazed and entertained by the simplest objects.
Try to get someone to [...]

i love Spanish women’s fascination with fans. they bring them everywhere…on the metro, to the cafe, walking down the street. the fan has a language of its own, an unwritten air of mystery or perhaps femme fatal. i cannot believe that i never used one in Arizona. although i kept [...]

i never realized how much the image of a blue bird makes me happy. that is until i got my tattoos. now is see the images everywhere and they always make me smile. butterflies too. the fascination started just over a year ago, before my wedding and has grown since. [...]

every place has its own smell, the doctor’s office, school, home. well a new city comes with its own set of nose ticklings. i never realized how much Phoenix just smelled like dirt, orange trees and asphalt until moving to barcelona. now this city knows what to do with smells…fly them in [...]